Heidelberg School
The Heidelberg School was an Australian art movement of the late 19th century. It has been described as Australian impressionism.
Melbourne art critic Sidney Dickinson coined the term in an 1891 review of works by Arthur Streeton and Walter Withers, two local artists who painted en plein air in Heidelberg on the city's rural outskirts. The term has since evolved to cover these and other painters—most notably Tom Roberts, Charles Conder and Frederick McCubbin—who worked together at "artists' camps" around Melbourne and Sydney in the 1880s and 1890s. Drawing on naturalist and impressionist ideas, they sought to capture Australian life, the bush, and the harsh sunlight that typifies the country.
The movement emerged at a time of strong nationalist sentiment in the Australian colonies, then on the cusp of federating. The artists' paintings, like the bush poems of the contemporaneous Bulletin School, were celebrated for being distinctly Australian in character, and by the early 20th century, critics had come to identify the movement as the beginning of an Australian tradition in Western art. Many of their major works can be seen in Australia's public galleries, including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
History
The name refers to the then-rural area of Heidelberg, east of Melbourne, where practitioners of the style found their subject matter, though usage expanded to cover other Australian artists working in similar areas. The core group painted together at "artists' camps", the first being the Box Hill artists' camp, established in 1885 by Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin and Louis Abrahams. They were later joined by Arthur Streeton, Walter Withers, and Charles Conder. See below for a list of other associated artists.9 by 5 Impression Exhibition
In August 1889, several artists of the Heidelberg School staged their first independent exhibition at Buxton's Rooms, Swanston Street, opposite the Melbourne Town Hall. Named the 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition, it included 183 "impressions", of which 63 were by Tom Roberts, 40 by Arthur Streeton and 46 by Charles Conder. Smaller contributions came from Frederick McCubbin and Charles Douglas Richardson, who, in addition to 19 oil paintings, included five sculpted impressions in wax and bronze. The majority of the works date from the autumn and winter of 1889 and were painted on wooden cigar-box lids, most measuring 9 by 5 inches, hence the name of the exhibition. Louis Abrahams, a member of the Box Hill artists' camp, sourced the lids from his cigar business, Sniders & Abrahams.In order to emphasise the small size of the paintings, the artists displayed them in broad kauri pine frames, many asymmetrical in design and left unornamented, others painted in metallic colours or decorated with verse and small sketches, giving the works an "unconventional, avant garde look". The Japonist décor they chose for Buxton's Rooms featured Japanese screens, silk draperies, umbrellas, and vases with flowers that perfumed the gallery, while background music was performed on certain afternoons. The harmony and "total effect" of the display showed the marked influence of Whistler and the broader aesthetic movement.
The artists generated publicity for the exhibition through a series of calculated press interviews and articles. Intentionally provocative, they sought to challenge artistic norms and give Melbourne society "an opportunity of judging for itself what Impressionism truly is". They wrote in the catalogue:
The exhibition caused a stir during its three-week run with Melbourne society " to Buxton’s, hoping to be amazed, intrigued or outraged". The general public, though somewhat bemused, responded positively, and within two weeks of the opening, most of the 9 by 5s had sold. The response from critics, however, was mixed. The most scathing review came from James Smith, then Australia's foremost art critic, who said the 9 by 5s were "destitute of all sense of the beautiful" and "whatever influence was likely to exercise could scarcely be otherwise than misleading and pernicious." The artists nailed the review to the entrance of the venue—attracting many more passing pedestrians to, in Streeton's words, "see the dreadful paintings"—and responded with a letter to the Editor of Smith's newspaper, The Argus. Described as a manifesto, the letter defends freedom of choice in subject and technique, concluding:
The 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition is now regarded as a landmark event in Australian art history. Approximately one-third of the 9 by 5s are known to have survived, many of which are held in Australia's public collections, and have sold at auction for prices exceeding $1,000,000.
Grosvenor Chambers
In April 1888, Grosvenor Chambers, Melbourne's first custom-built complex of artists' studios, opened at the eastern end of Collins Street. It was built by the art decorating firm Paterson Bros., established by Hugh and James Paterson, brothers of plein airist and associate of the Heidelberg School John Ford Paterson. The architects arranged the lighting and interior design of the building after consulting Roberts, who, along with Heidelberg School members Jane Sutherland and Clara Southern, was among the first artists to occupy studios in the building. Grosvenor Chambers quickly became the focal point of Melbourne's art scene, with Conder, Streeton, McCubbin, Louis Abrahams and John Mather also moving in.The presence of Roberts, Streeton and Conder at Grosvenor Chambers accounts for the high number of urban views they included in the 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition, including Roberts' By the Treasury, painted from the vantage point of his studio and featuring the Old Treasury Building on Spring Street.
Grosvenor Chambers was used an urban base from which members of the Heidelberg School could receive sitters for portraits. It is evident from these portraits that many of the artists decorated their studios in an Aesthetic manner, showing the influence of James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Roberts' use of eucalypts and golden wattle as decorations started a fad for Australian flora in the home. He also initiated in-studio conversaziones at which artists discussed recent artistic trends and read the latest art journals.
Inspired by the success of Grosvenor Chambers, another complex of studios, Gordon Chambers, opened on Flinders Lane in 1889. Streeton, Conder and Richardson soon moved in, and in 1890, the trio staged a show of Heidelberg landscapes there in the lead up to the Victorian Artists' Society's Winter exhibition. During this period, members of the Heidelberg School began hosting simultaneous exhibitions across Grosvenor Chambers, Gordon Chambers and other nearby studios, with visitors and prospective buyers being invited to move freely between them.
Sydney
Roberts first visited Sydney in 1887. There, he developed a strong artistic friendship with Charles Conder, a young painter who had already gone on plein air excursions outside Sydney and picked up some impressionist techniques from expatriate artist G. P. Nerli. In early 1888, before Conder joined Roberts on his return trip to Melbourne, the pair painted companion works at the beachside suburb of Coogee.When a severe economic depression hit Melbourne in 1890, Roberts and Streeton moved to Sydney, first setting up camp at Mosman Bay, a small cove of the harbour, before finally settling around the corner at Curlew Camp, which was accessible by the Mosman ferry. Melbourne artist Albert Henry Fullwood stayed with Streeton at Curlew, as well as other plen air painters on occasion, including prominent art teacher and Heidelberg School supporter Julian Ashton, who resided nearby at the Balmoral artists' camp. Ashton had earlier introduced Conder to plein air painting, and in 1890, as a trustee of the National Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, secured the acquisition of Streeton's Heidelberg landscape ‘Still glides the stream, and shall forever glide’ —the first of the artist's works to enter a public collection. The more sympathetic patronage shown by Ashton and others in Sydney inspired more artists to make the move from Melbourne.
Streeton won acclaim in Sydney for his harbour views, many of which were collected by Eadith Walker and Howard Hinton, two of the city's leading art patrons. In a poem dedicated to the artist, composer and outspoken sensualist George Marshall-Hall declared Streeton's Sydney the "City of laughing loveliness! Sun-girdled Queen!", which became the title of one of his harbour views. The National Gallery of Victoria notes:
From Sydney, Streeton, Roberts and Fullwood branched out into country New South Wales, where, in the early 1890s, they painted some of their most celebrated works.
Second phase
By the early 1890s, the golden era of the Heidelberg School had come to an end as several leading members pursued more individual paths. Conder moved to Europe, where he became a legendary figure of the fin de siècle, mixing within the social circles of Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley, and frequenting Parisian bohemian districts with the likes of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Streeton continued to work primarily in and around Sydney until 1897, when he too moved to Europe, settling in London. Roberts followed a few years later. The artists maintained correspondence and, when recalling the Heidelberg School period, often did so with intense feelings of nostalgia. Conder wrote to Roberts:Back in Melbourne, McCubbin, Withers, Paterson, Sutherland, Leon Pole and Tom Humphrey continued to work en plein air in and around Heidelberg. From 1890, Charterisville, a rural property in neighbouring East Ivanhoe, became the favoured hub of many of these artists. They were soon joined by younger Australians such as David Davies and E. Phillips Fox, who, during their studies in France, had picked up impressionist techniques and visited artists' colonies. Throughout the 1890s, Fox and Tudor St. George Tucker ran the Melbourne School of Art at Charterisville, teaching plein airism and impressionist techniques to a new generation of artists, including Ina Gregory, Violet Teague and Hugh Ramsay.